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IVF Florida
2960 North State Road 7
Suite 300
Margate, Florida 33063

Phone: (954) 247-6200
Toll Free: (866) 770-2168

IVF Florida in the News

At IVF Florida Reproductive Associates, our skill, passion, and dedication to providing care of the highest standard have made us one of the premier fertility centers in Southern Florida. As a result of our success, our physicians and our practice are often featured in published articles and news stories. The following articles represent just a sample of the media attention our practice has received:

Thirty Years After First IVF Baby: What Did the Future Really Bring?

With Louise Brown’s birthday July 25, South Florida fertility expert reflects on evolution from uproar to acceptance – along with new ethical & sociological issues

MARGATE, FLORIDA – As English postal worker Louise Joy Brown approaches her 30th birthday July 25 as the world’s first “test-tube baby,” one of the first American doctors involved in in vitro fertilization (IVF) reflects from his South Florida practice on how routine the once-explosively-controversial medical procedure has become.

At the time of Brown’s birth in 1978, “most infertility practice related to tubal surgery for women, which wasn’t very successful,” said Dr. David Hoffman of IVF Florida Reproductive Associates and past president of the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology.

“Once we were able to retrieve eggs vaginally to use for IVF, the field changed radically. Fortunately, much of the initial paranoia about test-tube babies has been eclipsed by widespread education and acceptance of the medical benefits.”

Hoffman was in his residency with the team at the University of Southern California that facilitated the birth of the second IVF baby in the United States in 1982. Since then, he said, much of the initial ethical worries over the “brave new world” have given way to virtually universal acceptance.

“Reproductive endocrinology [the specialty of IVF physicians] is the only medical field that reports its outcomes to the government and has FDA inspection of embryology labs and oversight of all third-party reproduction,” Hoffman said. “And the majority of reproductive specialists follow the practice guidelines established by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.”

Instead, Brown’s birth has lead to unforeseen developments and medical advancements that few could have predicted over the last three decades – accompanied at the same time by the rise of new ethical and sociological questions that have put their maturing specialty under a wholly different kind of lens than was the case in 1978.

During the last few decades, advancements in embryology technology and now-normal procedures such as ultrasound have dramatically improved reproductive medicine with higher success rates and healthier babies, Hoffman said. In vitro pregnancy rates continue to soar far beyond those in the first decade of IVF, when most women had a 5 to 10 percent chance of conceiving through IVF. (Today, the national average for the rate of conception is better than one in three.)

Since 1993, the development of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) allowed for the treatment of male factor infertility, and recent forays into donated human eggs and genetic screening have mushroomed in popularity among couples who not long ago would likely have not been candidates for IVF.

“From gender selection of unborn babies to deciding who has rights to be parents, we probably will always face unresolved issues around embryo technology both within the medical community and society at large,” Hoffman said.

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First Woman to Join Premier South Florida Infertility Practice

Dr. Debbra Keegan launches career with renowned fertility specialists

MARGATE, FLORIDA, July 11, 2007 – Fresh from her Fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the highly regarded New York University School of Medicine, Debbra A. Keegan, M.D. launches her career with some of the nation’s most prestigious practitioners in her field at IVF Florida Reproductive Associates, August 1.

“As a woman, I am excited to care for Florida patients whose cultural and religious backgrounds require female-only medical support,” she says. “Having lived and studied in New York provided me with a broad exposure to the special needs of a multi-ethnic population.”

Florida’s population has many women who require female-only medical care. For example, some women who observe orthodox Islamic practices and some Hispanic women who have expressed concerns about possessive, jealous husbands will not consult with male fertility specialists and therefore do not receive the care they need.

“I have always wanted to be part of a team like IVF’s that practices good, sound medicine, with the highest ethics, and great attention given to patient care,” says Keegan. Prior to completing her four-year fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, she also completed her four-year OB/GYN residency and her Medical Degree, all at the prestigious New York University School of Medicine Keegan additionally served as Clinical Instructor and Research Associate at NYU and Bellevue Hospital Center. She received numerous awards from NYU, including the Honor Student Award in Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Berlex Award for Best Teaching Resident, and the Barton Memorial Award for Graduating Honor Resident.

“Dr. Keegan’s extensive research background in IVF and embryology, in addition to her talents as a doctor, should make her feel at home on Florida’s frontiers of infertility medicine,” says Stephen J. Ory, M.D., Medical Director of IVF Florida. “And we are pleased that we can now offer patients who require female-only care one of the finest in the nation.”

Keegan has actively researched IVF, diminished ovarian reserve, and management of congenital uterine anomalies. She is also interested in the immunology of implantation and how problems with implantation affect pregnancy and is currently studying markers of implantation using proteomic technology. Keegan has authored peer-reviewed papers on pregnancy outcomes after IVF and donor egg cycles and is widely published.

Keegan is a Fellow in the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology and a member of the American Society for Reproductive Endocrinology, the Society for Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, and The Endocrine Society.

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IVF Experts Launch New Egg Freezing Program for Cancer Patients

Latest research boosts confidence that radiation, chemotherapy and surgery patients can preserve fertility through vitrification method

MARGATE, FLORIDA – Advances in the safety and success of human egg freezing are fueling new hope for cancer patients wanting to preserve their fertility, say experts at IVF Florida Reproductive Associates (IVFF), who today announced a new cryopreservation program for women of reproductive age undergoing radiation, chemotherapy or cancer surgery.

Recent research indicates considerable gains in helping women whose cancer treatments could limit future reproductive potential, said Steven J. Ory, M.D., who on Thursday January 31 will officially kick off IVFF’s new program in a presentation to physicians of the West Palm Beach Cancer Institute.

“New research data should be reassuring to women whose best option for giving birth might be to freeze their eggs till after cancer treatment,” said Ory, who just completed a one-year term as president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Frozen eggs that fertilize, develop into viable embryos, and implant are as likely to result in healthy children as fresh eggs. For patients with partners, freezing embryos may even be the best option, he added.

IVFF recently received Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval for its egg freezing procedures following a rigorous process of review of possible risks associated to patients. "Receiving an IRB approval is significant in the evaluation of any new medical technology because it provides standards and quality control," said Ory.

Doctors are encouraged by research about the vitrification process, a faster freezing process that improves the viability of an egg. In this process, the egg is cooled at an extremely rapid rate, which eliminates the formation of ice crystals in the egg, which can severely damage the egg’s chromosomes when thawed. The egg is stored in liquid nitrogen until time for thawing and fertilization. Vitrification is also used with great success for patients undergoing IVF procedures who have more embryos than are required for a fresh embryo transfer.

The first successful pregnancy using a thawed egg was reported in 1986, when the survival of eggs following thawing after a slower freezing technique was very low, with an overall success rate of about 1 percent implantation per frozen egg. According to the newest guidelines released by the ASRM in October 2007, rates for the slow-freezing method have increased to 2 percent live birthrate per egg thawed using slow freeze methods, and a 4 percent live birthrate per egg thawed using vitrification.

Recent studies showed that vitrified/warmed eggs survived better than the slower method, at a rate of 73 percent compared to 66 percent. Additional data found 272 clinical pregnancies from embryos created with frozen eggs showed 93.8 percent had normal results for eggs that had preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD).

Ory appears at 7:30 a.m. January 31 with the West Palm Beach Cancer Institute in association with Fertile Hope, a national organization dedicated to providing support to cancer patients and survivors whose medical treatments present the risk of infertility. The chemotherapy and radiation that treats cancer can destroy both women’s and men’s ability to conceive children. “We are pleased to be able to help patients who face the emotionally overwhelming medical challenges of life-threatening illness,” he said. The Palm Beach Cancer Institute is located at the Good Samaritan Medical Center in West Palm Beach.

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New Wellington Clinic is Fourth Location for Top Infertility Practice

MARGATE, FLORIDA, April 10, 2008 – IVF Florida Reproductive Associates is pleased to announce the opening of its newest clinic, in Wellington. This brings the total of south Florida locations for the infertility medical practice to four.

"Our Wellington clinic is intended to provide greater convenience for our patients by requiring less travel,” says IVF Florida reproductive endocrinologist Dr. Wayne Maxson, “We’re excited and honored to be able to bring IVF Florida’s renowned fertility care to Wellington, offering services such as ultrasound, lab consultation, and follow-up visits.

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IVF Florida Reproductive Associates Offers IntegraMed's New Enhanced Refund Program for Donor Egg Recipients

MARGATE, FLORIDA – IVF Florida Reproductive Associates announced today they are the exclusive providers in their area of an enhanced refund program for donor egg recipients, a new option offered in the IntegraMed® Shared Risk® Refund Program. The new package will be offered exclusively by selected members of IntegraMed's network of participating fertility centers.

The cost of medical treatment is just part of the expense of in vitro fertilization (IVF) with donor eggs. Typically, almost half of the total expense is due to out-of-pocket expenditures for identifying and screening the egg donor. The new enhanced package from IntegraMed covers a comprehensive list of services in addition to the costs of the standard medical procedures included in the Shared Risk Refund Program. Patients now have the option of including the costs for donor screening, donor compensation, case management and advanced embryology services such as blastocyst culture, assisted hatching, cryopreservation of embryos and embryo storage for the first 6 months.

Patients may elect to enroll in the standard donor egg recipient program, which covers medical treatment for the egg donor and recipient only, or the new enhanced program, and pay a flat rate up front. In both the new program and the standard program, donor egg recipients are eligible for up to three IVF cycles and unlimited frozen embryo transfers (using eggs retrieved during the stimulated cycles performed during program participation) at no additional cost.

As with other Shared Risk Refund Program offerings, if IVF treatment using donor eggs should fail, up to 100% of the fees paid to IntegraMed will be refunded. IntegraMed's refund guarantee makes this new option the most prudent way for patients to spend their money on IVF treatment. They will either take a baby home or get their money back.

"We're offering this new program in response to the needs of our patients who are donor egg recipients," said IVF Florida reproductive endocrinologist Dr. Debbra A. Keegan. "While success rates of treatment with donor eggs are very high, nearly half of all patients will need more than one cycle to be successful. The enhanced Shared Risk Refund Program helps them manage the majority of the costs involved with donor eggs, so they can stay in treatment and get what they want, a baby."

Planning for more than one IVF cycle can help reduce the stress and anxiety of treatment, and increase the opportunity to have a child. The IntegraMed Shared Risk Refund Program now offers an array of options to make IVF treatment manageable, from the basic option for IVF patients to the new enhanced refund program for donor egg recipients.

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Donor Eggs Increasingly Scarce as National Trend Toward Use Increases

IVF Florida Reproductive Associates finds increasing need for egg donors

MARGATE, FLORIDA– A national trend toward using donor eggs in fertility treatments underscores an urgent local need for egg donors, say fertility experts at IVF Florida Reproductive Associates.

According to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), use of donor eggs rose from 9,066 cycles in 1999 to 10,389 in 2000. This rising trend has resulted in an increased demand for egg donors.

Women, on average, are having their first child at about age 25, almost three years later than the 1970 average for first-time moms, according to a study by the CDC. Further research indicates that women are waiting later in life to have children, many postponing motherhood till as late as their 40s. IVF Florida is encouraging potential donors to contact their donor egg program.

“Because of the time and effort required to donate, egg donors are often motivated by a sense of their ability to help couples in desperate need,” said Wayne S. Maxson, M.D., founding physician at IVF Florida. “Egg donors provide hope to couples that very often are close to losing all hope of ever having a baby.”

Potential egg donors must be between 21 to 32 years old and can be anonymous or a friend or family member the patient chooses. It is increasingly common for donors to be chosen who physically resemble the recipient mother and even share common interests. The recipient patient carries the pregnancy – comprised of her male partner’s sperm and the donated egg or eggs – in her uterus.

“The screening process is critical to the selection of egg donors,” said Maxson. “Medical history, including a physical examination, testing for infectious diseases, genetic testing, screening for inheritable diseases, and psychological assessment are all a part of the egg-donor selection process.”

There are numerous issues to consider before a couple chooses egg donation in order to have a baby, according to Maxson.

“Egg donation is an increasingly viable option for older women wanting a family,” said Maxson. “However, couples should seek out continued support and information from their infertility specialists regarding the process of donor selection and what the couple can expect throughout the egg retrieval and implantation process.”

Although the in vitro fertilization process is relatively simple, use of hormones, emotional considerations and family dynamics all play a part. Dr. Maxson recommends emotional and psychological support always be included. “Consultations with our team psychologist are an intrinsic part of the process,” he says, “because the experience is made that much more joyful when couples have knowledge, understanding and full support built into their infertility treatment.” Consultations provide opportunities to explore a variety of concerns, such as questions about parenting a child not genetically related, donor selection options, whether or how discuss to egg donation with friends and family, and if, what, and when to tell a child about their assisted conception.

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Freezing Sperm and Eggs Give Couples Hope for the Future

Facing chemotherapy and surgery, cancer patients opt to preserve sperm, eggs

BY BOB LaMENDOLA | South Florida Sun-Sentinel

When he heard the diagnosis — prostate cancer, surgery needed — Neal Rosenblum was crushed that the treatment would destroy his ability to have more children.

Now a year later, the self-employed Hollywood engineer and inventor lives cancer-free, and he and his wife last week tried for a baby through in-vitro fertilization using his sperm frozen before the surgery left him sterile.

Rosenblum, 41, is one of a growing number of young cancer patients freezing sperm and eggs in case surgery, chemotherapy and radiation end their reproductive futures. For men, it's a fairly successful process.

But for women, egg freezing is still experimental, with high hopes but uncertain success. What's more, some fertility doctors are upsetting their colleagues by marketing egg freezing as a mainstream technique for healthy women who want to bank young eggs so they can delay pregnancy.

"It's not responsible. We do not know this is safe yet," said Dr. Moshe Peress, medical director of Boca Fertility, who does not freeze eggs and does not recommend it unless a woman has no other choice.

Rosenblum and his wife, Jennifer, spent about $5,000 plus $75 per quarter in storage fees — health insurance covers little — to put his sperm on ice. In the weeks before cancer surgery last August, he made five visits to IVF Florida fertility clinic in Pembroke Pines to make deposits.

"We wanted our son Alex to grow up with a sibling," Rosenblum said. "I thought freezing would be my only shot at having another baby."

In-vitro procedures involve extracting eggs from the woman and sperm from the man, then either mixing them in a petri dish or injecting sperm directly into eggs. The resulting embryo is then implanted in the womb.

The Rosenblums now have at least 15 chances at pregnancy. The first embryo made from frozen sperm did not survive implantation. The process is not cheap. Their in-vitro bill stands at about $30,000 after their second IVF try.

New approach boosts success

Babies have been conceived with frozen sperm since the 1950s, but the odds have risen as a result of a relatively new technique called intracytoplasmic sperm injection, in which a single good sperm is inserted into an egg.

Even so, only about one-third of young cancer patients bank sperm and only a few percent use it, recent studies show. That's partly because many cancer doctors do not discuss the options for patients who may lose fertility during treatment, said Dr. Kenneth Gelman, a Cooper City reproductive specialist.

"It tends to get missed. Oncologists have more serious issues to be dealing with," Gelman said. "But the patients should be made aware of their future fertility concerns, so they can decide if they want to freeze their sperm before the treatment begins."

Dr. Mark Soloway, Rosenblum's cancer doctor and chairman of urology at the University of Miami medical school, said sperm freezing is becoming more common because male cancer patients in their 20s and 30s are on the rise. Higher awareness of cancer means more and younger men get tested, diagnosed and treated, he said.

Female cancer patients in South Florida have fewer choices because egg freezing has only been done here for about a year, and only a handful of clinics do it as part of research studies. The procedures are not yet approved for wide use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The first baby was born from a frozen egg in 1986, but compared to sperm or embryos, eggs do not freeze well. The outer shells harden. If ice crystals form on the inside, the egg dies. The thawing process claims some. Those that survive are not as likely to fertilize, and in the womb, they are not as robust as fresh eggs, fertility doctors said.

In 2005, Italian researchers unveiled a new quick-freeze method using liquid nitrogen that may solve the icing problem. In certain overseas labs, success with frozen eggs reached 30 percent, exciting fertility specialists such as Dr. Harold F. Rodriguez at the Center for Assisted Reproductive Embryology.

The practice in Plantation now offers egg freezing to women as part of a study by a California company seeking FDA approval for a freezing system, Rodriguez said. Couples in the study pay about half of the normal $12,000 cost of in-vitro. Of the eggs collected so far, he said, most sit in storage. Five have been thawed, fertilized and implanted. Two resulted in pregnancy, but neither survived beyond eight weeks.

"We view egg freezing as something that's going to be revolutionary," Rodriguez said. "Women will be able to freeze their eggs, then go through their careers and then get pregnant when they are later in their careers, in their 40s and 50s."

But such statements distress some fertility doctors, who warn against hyping the highly profitable procedure to over-40 women.

The odds of a woman getting pregnant erode after age 35, from a peak of 30 percent down to 10 percent at age 40 and 5 percent at 42. Some of the decline is due to lower-quality eggs that could be replaced by frozen young eggs, but experts said older women have other biological barriers to conception.

Plus, egg freezing lags other reproductive methods. Michigan researchers reported in October that about 5 percent of frozen eggs led to a pregnancy, compared to 34 percent of IVF procedures using fresh eggs resulting in babies and 28 percent of IVF using frozen embryos.

With only about 200 babies born from frozen eggs, the FDA wants more data to be sure the process does not cause genetic damage to the babies. While there's no evidence it does, there's not enough of a track record to rule it out.

"There is no good data yet. I think it will remain an experimental therapy for a while longer," said Dr. Steven Ory, a partner at IVF Florida in Margate, Pembroke Pines, Wellington and Palm Beach Gardens. The practice offers egg freezing only to women with cancer or who can't get pregnant otherwise.

The professional group American Society for Reproductive Medicine urges fertility doctors to use the procedure only under experimental conditions.

"It works, and it's going to get better," said Dr. Karine Chung, founder of a fertility program at the University of Southern California. "The way it's being marketing, it's not being entirely truthful to the potential clientele that's it still early in the game."

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Top 10 Myths and Facts about Male Infertility

1. MYTH: Infertility is a woman's problem.

FACT: It surprises most people to learn that infertility is a female problem in 35 percent of the cases, a male problem in 35 percent of the cases, a combined problem of the couple in 20 percent of cases, and unexplained in 10 percent of cases, according to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. It is essential that both the man and the woman be evaluated during an infertility evaluation.

Common male infertility factors include azoospermia (no sperm cells are produced) and oligospermia (few sperm cells are produced). Sometimes, sperm cells are malformed or they die before they can reach the egg. In rare cases, a genetic disease such as cystic fibrosis or a chromosomal abnormality causes infertility in men.

2. MYTH: Testicle size is what really matters.

FACT: Men of all body weights enter a level playing field when it comes to paternity, but small testes can indicate a testosterone deficiency and possibly infertility. Small testes can make a man feel tired, lose muscle, gain weight, lose sex drive, and may carry a higher risk of developing testicular cancer. Testicles that are15 ml to 35 ml are considered in the normal range.

3. MYTH: The heat from laptops and hot tubs do not kill sperm.

FACT: One hour of laptop use raises testicle temperature by almost 3o C, potentially putting sperm count at risk. Testicles are located outside the body because they need to stay cooler. Men who are trying to conceive should avoid sauna and hot tub use. A University of California at San Francisco study reported in the September 17, 2007 New York Times showed men who were regularly exposed to high water temperatures (about 30 minutes a week) through hot tubs or hot baths, showed signs of infertility, with impaired sperm production and motility. Researchers also found this infertility could be reversed quickly: after the men stopped their exposure to wet heat, half had a mean increase in total motile sperm counts of 491 percent after three to six months.

4. MYTH: The biological clock has no impact on men’s fertility.

FACT: According to a study reported in the Aug. 1, 2006 issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology, sperm quality starts to go downhill after age 35 and indicates that paternal age is a significant risk factor for miscarriage. The study of almost 14,000 pregnancies, conducted at Columbia University, showed that women with partners ages 35 or older had nearly a threefold increase in spontaneous abortions compared with women whose partners were younger than 25. Researchers found that the risk of miscarriage of a fetus conceived by a father over age 40 was 60 percent greater than if the father were 25 to 29, irrespective of other factors that have been linked with increased miscarriage risk, such as the mother's age, maternal diabetes, poor maternal health and smoking during pregnancy. The increased risk of miscarriage does not just apply to fathers in their 40s, however.

The miscarriage risk in a pregnancy involving a father aged 35 to 39 was three times higher than the risk if the father were under 25.

5. MYTH: Overweight men are just as fertile as men of average weight.

FACT: “One in 10 infertility problems in men may be weight related,” says David D. Hoffman, MD of IVF Florida Reproductive Associates. Research from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences showed that men with increased body mass index (BMI) were significantly more likely to be infertile than normal-weight men. A 20-pound increase in men's weight may increase the chance of infertility by about 10 percent. The majority of men who participated in the study were more than 30 years old. Obesity affects nearly one-third of the adult American population (approximately 60 million). According to the American Obesity Association, the number of overweight and obese Americans has continued to increase since 1960, a trend that is not slowing down.

6. MYTH: Conception gets easier after your first child.

FACT: “Many of the male patients we treat were married later in life or in the course of their second or third marriages found they were unable to conceive—even if they had children from a previous marriage,” says Marcelo J. Barrionuevo, MD, of IVF Florida Reproductive Associates. “Sperm quality is clearly impacted as child-bearing is increasingly delayed – for both men and women. It is already well documented that fertility declines because of a limited number and quality of eggs for women as they get older, so this is research should alert men to similar issues due to environmental issues and other poorly understood factors that deteriorate sperm quality over time”

7. MYTH: Men stop making sperm after a vasectomy.

FACT: Men continue to make sperm regardless of how long it has been since they had their vasectomies unless other factors come into play, such as injury to the testicles, exposure to chemicals or toxins, and certain serious medical problems.

8. MYTH: Bicycle seats cause damage to the testicles.

FACT: Evidence regarding bicycle seats pertains to erection, not fertility. A seat that causes numbness could potentially damage a man's erection. However, there is no evidence to show that fertility is affected.

9. MYTH: Tight clothing contributes to low sperm count.

FACT: Evidence shows that tight pants and underwear have no effect on sperm count. There is really no difference in boxers versus briefs, tight jeans versus loose pants.

10. MYTH: Women, not men, benefit from nutritional supplements to enhance their chances of conception.

FACT: Men who take selenium (200mg/day) and zinc (50mg/day) have improved the number and quality of sperm. In addition, a low-glycemic diet for men has been demonstrated to have beneficial effects on sperm.

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South Florida Infertility Practice Welcomes Dr. Vanessa Weitzman

Top IVF practice’s second female physician brings global perspective

MARGATE, FLORIDA, December 10, 2008 – Vanessa Weitzman, M.D. launched her career this October at IVF Florida Reproductive Associates, becoming the second female physician to join the state’s largest fertility practice. Her background includes extensive international experience both living and practicing medicine abroad. Raised in Peru and Miami, Weitzman’s first language is Spanish, but she is fluent in English, and has partial fluency in Hebrew.

Weitzman was born to Israeli parents in Peru, where she grew up before her family moved to Miami. She also studied in Israel, where she pursued her interest in archaeology prior to earning her undergraduate and medical school degrees at Boston University.

But before undertaking her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, NJ, Weitzman took a year off the traditional education track to work abroad in extraordinary settings. Her first-hand understanding of families who deal with loss of native land and issues related to global relocation motivated her to explore medical work abroad. Weitzman said she wanted to increase her “sensitivity, flexibility, and involvement with patients” through providing medical care for Burmese refugees in the mountains of Thailand, Amazon River jungle villagers who utilized military “floating ambulances” in Iquitos, Peru, as well as patients at medical centers in Ireland and Israel.

 “I am excited to begin care for Florida patients, many of whom come from diverse
backgrounds,” she said. “Working abroad provided an invaluable exposure to the needs of a multi-ethnic population.”

“Weitzman’s international background, as well as her intensive research background with fertility preservation for cancer patients, made her an attractive candidate for IVF Florida,” said Steven J. Ory, M.D. Weitzman completed her subspecialty training in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the University of Connecticut Healthcare Center in Farmington, CT. She received numerous awards including the International Health Fellowship, the Outstanding Service Award for her work at Mae Tao Clinic, she was a Milford and Barbara Nember Fellow and recipient of a Cervical Cancer Research Grant. Weitzman’s research experience included areas of IVF, diminished ovarian reserve, and advanced laparoscopic surgery under a National Institute for Health grant. She is also interested in the preservation of future fertility and oocyte cryopreservation has been involved in research involving factors affecting oocyte cryopreservation and in vitro maturation.

Currently Board Eligible in Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, Weitzman is member of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the American Society of Reproductive Medicine.

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IVF Florida Reproductive Associates Achieves Ambulatory Health Care Accreditation

MARGATE, FLORIDA – IVF Florida Reproductive Associates has achieved a three-year accreditation by the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC/Accreditation Association). Accreditation distinguishes this surgical center from many other outpatient surgical facilities by providing a safe work environment and the highest quality of care to patients.

As an accredited organization, IVF Florida has met nationally recognized standards for the provision of quality health care, set by the Accreditation Association. More than 3,600 ambulatory health care organizations across the United States are accredited by AAAHC. Not all ambulatory health care organizations seek accreditation; not all undergoing the on-site survey are granted accreditation.

“We believe our patients deserve the best,” said Dr. David I. Hoffman of IVF Florida.

"When patients see our certificate of accreditation, they will know that the AAAHC, an independent, not-for-profit organization, has closely examined our facility and procedures. It means that IVF Florida offers the highest quality of care possible for our patients."

Ambulatory health care organizations seeking accreditation by the AAAHC undergo an extensive self-assessment and on-site survey by the Accreditation Association’s expert surveyors – volunteer physicians, nurses and administrators who are actively involved in ambulatory health care. The survey is consultative and educational, presenting best practices to help an organization improve its care and services.

"The accreditation process challenged us to find better ways to serve our patients, and serves as a constant reminder that our first responsibility is to our patients and quality of care we provide," said J. Clayton Lawrence, Executive Director of IVF Florida Reproductive Associates.

AAAHC accreditation is specifically for organizations that provide diagnostic or medical care on an outpatient basis – where an overnight stay would not be required. Among the types of ambulatory health care organizations that can seek AAAHC accreditation are ambulatory and office-based surgery centers, single and multi-specialty group practices, college health centers, dental group practices, community health centers, occupational health centers and managed care organizations.

The Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC/Accreditation Association), founded in 1979, is the leader in ambulatory health care accreditation with more than 3,600 organizations accredited nationwide. The AAAHC accredits a variety of ambulatory health care organizations, including ambulatory surgery centers, office-based surgery centers, endoscopy centers, college student health centers, and large medical and dental practices. The Accreditation Association serves as an advocate for the provision of high quality health care through the development of nationally recognized standards and through its survey and accreditation programs. AAAHC accreditation is recognized as a symbol of quality by third party payers, medical organizations, liability insurance companies, state and federal agencies and the public.

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